Happy Holidays

Yesterday was our final day before the winter break.  It was a great day.  We all had pizza hot lunch and in the afternoon took part in the annual school-wide Christmas movie.

I wish everyone a safe and happy holiday season and look forward to seeing all the students again in the new year!

Happy Holidays!

What a Great Day!

We had such a fun day today in our class.  We watched Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer in the morning.  We learned all about reindeer last week, so it seemed fitting to watch the movie to celebrate.  This afternoon we made gingerbread houses with our big buddies.  The houses looked awesome!  Mrs. Morrison was a little bit nervous about making 15 gingerbread houses with 15 kindergarten students.  But, everything went smoothly and the houses looked great.  Unfortunately, Mrs. Morrison was so excited watching the houses take shape that she forgot to take pictures of their construction.

Last Week...

We were very busy in our classroom this past week.  We were working on our special Christmas presents for our parents.  We cannot tell you anything about that, you will have to wait until Christmas to see them.
On Tuesday, we did our name in Christmas Lights.  We have displayed them on the big bulletin board by the library along with another Kindergarten class.

    

 

On Wednesday, we made reindeer to display on the bulletin board outside our classroom.  We had to trace one of our feet and our hands to make the reindeer.

On Thursday, we played Roll a Christmas Tree. Here are the instructions.

We also learned about reindeer this week and compared them to bears.

Letters to Santa

We had so much fun this afternoon writing letters to Santa with the help of our big buddies.  We hope that we will hear back from Santa.  Check out our letters!

December 1st - Woo-hoo!

Mrs. Morrison was very excited that it was December 1st today.  It meant that the winter books and Christmas books got to come out and we got to start doing Christmas activities.  We started our day by making a Santa countdown from Christmas.  We had to colour and cut out Santa.  Each day we will paste a packing peanut onto Santa's beard until all the days are covered, then it will be Christmas!

After recess we played a game with dice called "Roll-a-Gingerbread Man."  Here is the instruction sheet and a little slideshow of us playing the game.

After lunch we made snowmen and snow-women to go on our fence in the classroom.  Here are some photos of us working and the finished product!  Mrs. Morrison was very proud of how they all turned out, she kept stopping to look at them after school when she was working.

 The finished product!

Our Favourite Things About November

We started the month of November learning about Bears.  We started "Reading with a Pal" (reading to a  stuffy) in November.  We talked about being unique and everyone got a chance to be the star, so we could learn all about them.  We continued patterning and sorting in math.  We made mittens and house glyphs with our big buddies.  Here are everyone's favourite things about November...

Amanda - my special day

Crystal - the Grumpy Grizzly song

David - the Grumpy Grizzly song

Elyse - making mittens with my buddy

Faith - the Grumpy Grizzly song

Gem - making the house glyph

Joban - making the mittens

Joshua - making the house glyph

Kaylee - making the house glyph with big buddies

Omar - making the house glyph

Roc - reading with a pal

Savio - reading with a pal

Sophia - making the house glyph

Zahra - the Grumpy Grizzly song

Counting

Today we played a math game! We had to work with a partner taking turns to pull one item out of a box at a time. We alternated back and forth with our partner to count to 20.  Some of us went even higher than 20.

Willougby Wallaby Woo

Willougby Wallaby Wee,
An elephant sat on me.
Willougby Wallaby Woo,
An elephant sat on you.
Willougby Wallaby Woc,
An elephant sat on Roc.
Willougby Wallaby Waylee,
An elephant sat on Kaylee.


Our class loves this poem!  When we read it, we make sure to read it enough times to include everyone's name.  It was requested that it be added to our blog for everyone to see and enjoy!

                                                           

Math News

Here are some photos us making patterns in math on Monday.  The only condition was that we only got two colours.  Some of us chose to make simple ABAB patterns, others chose ABBABB or AABAAB. It was interesting to see 5 different patterns come from one table with the same two colours.

We are also continuing to learn the numbers in detail.  On Tuesday and Wednesday we learned about the number 5.  We looked for things that came in 5's in the classroom.  We found our hands had 5 fingers, some names in our class have 5 letters,  there were 5 lines in the bottom of our bear poem, and there were 5 puppets on the five card on our wall.  We practiced printing 5's, made a five book, and trained our eyes and ears to see and hear five!  Mrs. Morrison flashed dot cards for the numbers 1-5 all mixed up and we had to say the number as quickly as we could.   Mrs. Morrison also had us close our eyes and listen to her clap and we had to say how many claps there were.

ABC's and 123's

Well... It is actually just Nn and 4 this week.
Our class has been working hard to learn letter names and sounds.  We know Mm, Ss, Aa, Tt, Pp, Ll, Jj, Bb, Gg and now Nn.  When we learn about each letter, we learn about what sound it makes and how to print it, we brainstorm words that start with the letter, we listen to songs about the letter, and so much more.

We have also been learning about numbers. We have mastered 1,2, 3 and now 4!  We learn the number word, the numeral and the dot card for each number.  We practice printing the numbers in the air, we rainbow write the number, we look for things in the classroom that there is just 1 of, or 2 of, and so on, and we train our hears and eyes to recognize the number.

Hear are some photos of us using the white boards to make Nn's and working on the number 4 today!

We have some rhymes to help us remember how to print the numbers and they go like this...

Start at the top and down you run

That's the way you make a one. 
        

Make a candy cane and give it a shoe

That's the way you make a two.

Around and around just like a "B"

That's the way you make a three.

Down and over and down some more

That's the way you make a four.

Reading With A Pal

Our class has started reading with a pal.  Reading with a pal is reading to a stuffed animal.  It took us a little while to get started because we had to collect enough stuffed animals for everyone in the class.  We were very lucky to have David and Joshua donate some of their old stuffed animals they didn't need anymore.  We really enjoy reading to our stuffed animals.  Here are some pictures....

Bears, Bears, Bears...

Right now our class is learning about bears.  We brainstormed all the bears we could think of; Pandas, Polar Bears, Grizzly Bears, Brown Bears, Black Bears, Teddy, Winnie the Pooh, Corduroy, Papa, Mama and Baby Bear, and some others.  We sorted pictures of bears living and non-living.

We learned about what bears eat and made flip up books.  Bears eat _____ but not me!

We learned about hibernation.  Some of us thought I might be nice to sleep for a really long time, but then realized we wouldn't get to come to school and see our friends so we changed our minds. We have a cool poem about bears eating before they hibernate.  The poem is magnetic so we can change what the bear eats each time we read it.

We have a bookshelf full of bear books including Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See by Eric Carle, Polar Bear, Polor Bear What Do You Hear? by Eric Carle, Goldilocks and the Three Bears and Bear Snores On.

We have been listening to bear songs, too! Click here to see and hear - I Can't Wait to Hibernate

Centers

We have a lot of fun learning during our center time everyday.  We were very excited that our science center finally opened today.  There is lots to explore at the science center including magnifying glasses, discovery bottles, Ispy bags and science books and magazines.

Roc showing Mrs. Morrison how big the magnifying glass makes everything.

Sophia showing Mrs. Morrison what the magnifying glass can do.

The drawing and writing center is also a favourite among the students in our class.  Today, Crystal and Elyse were working hard - colouring, cutting and writing.

Kaylee and Omar built a huge tower today at the blocks center.  They are very good builders and made sure their structure was balanced.  Unfortunately, Mrs. Morrison had to ask them stop because it was getting too tall and she didn't want to see it fall and hurt someone.  The builders understood her concerns.

Our Favourite Things About October

Our class did lots of fun things in October.  We started the month with the Primary Sharing Feast for Thanksgiving where all the primary classes gather in the gym to perform a thanksgiving song or poem, we then do the Turkey Pokey and eat our lunches together in the gym.  Later in the month we went on a field trip to the Pumpkin Patch.  At the pumpkin patch we went through a corn maze, got to feed goats and chickens, went through a haunted house and went on a hay ride to pick a pumpkin.  We painted pumpkins and drew faces on them to put on our wall.  We also made pumpkin paper lanterns with our grade seven big buddies.  On October 31st we celebrated Halloween with the Halloween Howl.  During the Howl the primary classes take part in Halloween themed relays in the gym, a costume parade and dance and then have a "party" in our classroom with snacks.  Here is everyone's favourite...
Amanda - the Halloween Howl
Crystal - the Pumpkin Patch
David - playing trains
Elyse - the Halloween Howl
Faith - Pumpkin Bingo
Gem (absent today)
Joshua - the Halloween Howl
Kaylee - the glow in the dark spiders at the Halloween Howl
Omar - the Halloween Howl
Roc - the Halloween Howl
Savio - making faces on the pumpkins
Sophia - playing with friends
Zahra - drawing faces on our pumpkins

These are our pumpkins that we painted and drew faces on!

Check out our video of some pictures from the Pumpkin Patch and the Halloween Howl.

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

Welcome to Our Classroom

These are some photos of our classroom.

This is our calendar area where we meet every morning.

This is our house center.  

These are just some of our math tubs.

This is our classroom library.  We also have lots of other books in the classroom that are kept in bins around the room.

We are very lucky to have two computers in our classroom that we can choose to use during center time.